Well, as I said in another post, my efforts to introduce a separate continuous sparring category to the usual point sparring stuff took a step forward today with an exhibition match held under knockdown rules between myself and my brother. Basic rules were:

Time limit: 2 x 2 minute rounds
Legal strikes: Kicks to legs body and head, punches to body, knees to body and legs
Illegal strikes: Punches to face, knees to face
Clinch: Fighters can hold each other for up to 5 seconds, at the end of which the referee will separate fighters and restart the match
Scoring: a fighter must be knocked to the ground or go down on one knee foe a point to be awarded. Also forcing your opponent outside the area will be awarded a half point. If a fighter is unable to continue his/her opponent will be awarded full ippon and the match.

As this was an exhibition, we (especially my brother) didn’t go out to kill each other, but still kept the contact fairly robust. Afterwards a lot of people came up to me and said the loved it and asked if it would be part of future competitions. I said it was up to the organisers, who were divided on it. Again, some came up to us and told us they were very impressed and that they liked it. Others did a poor job at hiding their disgust and took the “anyone can get on the floor and start hitting each other, the REAL skill is in semi contact games of tag!” line. Anyway, check out the video and tell me what you think.

Props to you guys for getting out there. I've never sparred in that format, only in kickboxing , escrima and judo so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Here's some thoughts:

Shorter fighter: good use of knees. pretty decent reverse punch to body of opponent. One nice roundhouse to the body unopposed late in the video.
BUT could work on balance issues-- seems like the low kicks lack power, off balance in the high kicks.

Taller fighter: nice sweep! low kicks looked effective at knocking opponent down at least once.
Could be more aggressive at defending against hand strike fluries from opponent.

That's about it. Oh and the people who said there was more skill in the semi-contact matches....**** 'em =)

odacon, how did you go about trying to convince the organizers to try this?

We just had to contuniously remind them that we weren't trying to replace the point sparring, and that it wouldn't turn into a bloodbath. Change is so hard for some people, so it was disheartening to encounter the hostility we did. I really have to thank my sensei though, it would have been shot down completely without him.

Why try to stop the clinch? It may not make the karate look "clean" but its more realistic. I think its a good idea and I especially liked the knees from the clinch, and from the sound of the clips the people did too. Allowing sweeps is god but are throws allowed?

Also, your style says Kyokushin. Dont you guys already do this type of training and competitions or were you at a non-kyokushin event showing people what Kyokushin is?